JIMMY SAVILE GROPED ROYAL

JIMMY SAVILE GROPED ROYAL

It is claimed that Jimmy Savile made a beeline for the Countess of Wessex when she was younger

The next thing you know, the wind has blown up her skirt, but it made Jimmy all the more tactile

DJ David Hamilton

DJ David Hamilton told how Savile made a beeline for the Countess of Wessex when she was a young PR at London’s Capital Radio.

Prince Edward’s wife-to-be, Sophie Rhys-Jones as she was then, had been hand-picked to meet the former Top Of The Pops presenter as he joined Capital Gold in 1990.

Sophie greeted the star with a bottle of champagne, but as they stood for photos on the street outside, the wind blew her skirt up.

Savile, almost 40 years older than her, leered at her legs, pawed at her side and attempted to shower her with kisses.

Last night David said Sophie, now 47, had been “less than impressed” by the DJ’s advances outside the studios in London’s Euston Road.

He added: “She greeted Jimmy with champagne, even though he was teetotal.

“The pictures were to be done outside Capital Radio on one of the windiest corners in London.

“The next thing you know, the wind has blown up her skirt, but it made Jimmy all the more tactile.

“The more this happened the more amorous Jimmy became, showering her with kisses.”

Sophie, who married Prince Edward in 1999, was disgusted when he started kissing her along her arms.

“Diddy” David, 74, said: “Sophie stormed off and said: ‘I refuse to have anything to do with that revolting man.’

“Jimmy was very, very disappointed.

I remember him saying: ‘I started with a pretty girl and now I’m left with you, a hairy gorilla.’”

Last night a spokeswoman for the Countess had not returned our calls.

Shamed Savile is now lying in an unmarked grave after his £4,000 headstone was removed from Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough, North Yorks.

The tombstone, engraved with the phrase “It was good while it lasted”, will be broken up and put into landfill.

Its removal was ordered by relatives who feared the grave would be attacked due to the recent revelations.

Family members also wanted it scrapped out of respect for other cemetery users, even though it was only completed three weeks ago.

Speaking about its removal, funeral director Robert Morphet said: “We started just after 11pm and finished going on 1am.

“We were concerned about the amount of people who might turn up if we left it until the morning.

“The gravestone will now be ground down so the inscription is totally wiped and will be destroyed. It will be broken up, placed in a skip and used as landfill.

“For the foreseeable future the grave will remain totally unmarked.

Mr Morphet, who helped organise Savile’s funeral last November, described the memorial’s removal as “unprecedented”.

He added: “It has taken about eight months for every aspect of this memorial, every word, to be considered.

“When we erected his headstone not three weeks ago I expected it to be here for ever. I never thought it would ever be removed, let alone so quickly.”

Savile’s dying wish was to be buried in a gold coffin, with his trademark cigar, at a 45-degree angle so he could look out on the sea and Scarborough Castle.

Fears that ghouls could try to dig up his body have been partly allayed by the fact his tomb was encased in concrete as a security measure at the time of his burial.

But a plaque in memory of the telly icon outside his former Scarborough flat was vandalised with the words “rapist” and “paedophile”, and clifftop signs commemorating Savile’s links to Scarborough have been dug up.

Last night Royal Armouries International, who own Savile’s Hall at Clarence Dock in the DJ’s home city of Leeds, said it too would ditch the name “out of respect for public opinion”.

And the Catholic church also turned its back on him.

Insiders say they are considering stripping Savile of a Papal knighthood he was granted by Pope John Paul II in 1990. A spokesman said: “It may have to be reviewed.”

Savile, who died almost a year ago aged 84, has been accused of 40 years of sex attacks on a “national scale”, with an estimated 25 victims, some as young as 13. Some even claim they were raped by him.

The NSPCC has received more than 40 calls in the past five days following revelations about his love for underage girls.

Christopher Cloke, head of Child Protection Awareness at the charity, said: “We want to hear from people who were abused by Savile because we think it’s very important that they should receive help and support.”